 Do you want to start a small business but you don't have any money? Well, you are in the same boat with many others. That's the reason why we're shooting this video for you today. Seven ways to get funding for your small business so then that way you can turn your dream into reality. Hey guys, it's Wilson here, your friend in helping you start your very own dream business or a thriving food business. If you guys want more tips, tricks and strategies, make sure you guys smash the like button. Every day I get messages like this all the time. Hey Wilson, I want to start a restaurant. Hey Wilson, I want to start selling food online. I want to start a small business but I have no money. And that's the reason why a lot of people are wanting to start a side gate while they're working their night to five. So then that way one day they can quit and be their own bosses or they just want to be able to quit right now and be their bosses right now. Now the question always comes back down to I have no money. And when we first started our ice cream shop, we had no money too. And that's the reason why I know these seven tips to get funding will be so helpful for you. Let's dive right in. First way to get funding for your small business is to use your personal savings. What does that mean? That means that you have saved out throughout the years from your nine to five and you're using that money for your small business. The pros of that is that now that you have skin in the game, you're going to work double the amount, triple the amount to make sure that you do not lose that amount. You're going to have that focus, that determination and you're not going to give up any easier. You're going to fight to the last battle. The second point is that you don't have anyone to answer to. You don't have the pressure to answer to other people. And sometimes the pressure that you have on your shoulders when you're using your investor's money is a lot more than the pressure that you have on yourself. And thirdly, the banks love it when you have skin in the game. They love it because now you're willing to risk your hard-earned money on your business so it makes it easier for you to get loans in the future as well. Now the cons of using your personal savings is the fact that usually that amount is quite limited and that really limits on what you can do with that amount. Who is this for? This is for people who want to get started right away. Second way to fund your small business, it is to ask your friends and family. Now how do you do that? Literally, you go to your friends and family with a proposal that you've drafted. Sell them on the idea of why you need the money. What is your proposal? What is it that you're trying to sell and how you're going to get back the money? Bring it to them and most likely you're going to be able to get some kind of funding. The pros of that is that usually friends and family, if you have a good relationship with them and if you have a good track record, they will always be there to support you. So that also is that usually the proposals are not as complicated. You don't need to do as much due diligence. You don't need to do the SWAT analysis and all those crazy scenarios and projections much easier than getting a loan from the bank, angels or venture capitalists. Now the cons of that is that it does put a lot of strain in your relationship with your friends and family and a lot of pressure on yourself because if you do fail it's going to be a very embarrassing and awkward family dinner you're going to have with your friends and family. So definitely it is for those people who are desperate to get started and really, really want to be able to see through their idea. Third way to get funding for your small business is through angels. Angels are private investors who have some money to invest in ideas. Now for you to actually get angel investors it is usually through your connections or friends of their friends and a lot of times you can actually meet these people at certain networking events as well. The pros of raising funds through angels is the fact that you can actually tap into their resources, their networks and to get mentorship from them and on top of that usually this amount of capital ranges from 100,000 to half a million dollars. So that means that you do get a lot more funding from these angel investors but the cons of that is that it does require you to be able to locate them, does require you to have some relationship with them and it does require you to be able to have a very solid plan in order for you to sell it to them. Another con is that you are definitely going to lose ownership in your small business when you have your angels invested as well because typically that transaction would require you to give away ownership. Now who is this for? This is for the people who have a little bit more business acumen, a little bit more intermediate when it comes to business and that's who's it's for. Fourth way to get funding for your small business is through venture capitalists. Who are venture capitalists? These are people who does investing in small business as a profession. These are people that are one step above the angels. How do you get a hold of them? How do you get a hold of them through having a proven track record on your small business already? We don't go to them when you're just starting out because usually they would want to see a proof of concept before they would invest into you. The pros of getting a venture capitalist to invest with you is the fact that usually that goes from $500,000 all the way to the millions of dollars so you have a lot of money to play with and on top of that they have a lot of connections. They can give you guidance and mentorship on the best way to actually go ahead with your business to grow it to that level where they can see the return for themselves. Now the cons of working with a venture capitalist is the fact that you're going to give away a lot of ownership of your own business and on top of that you're going to be answering to your venture capitalist and also really be a lot more money focused instead of passion focused because all they care about are the returns for their investment. Now who is this for? This is for the people who already has a proven business that proof of concept that they have proven that their concept is working and that the market would give them back that return. That's what it's for. If you guys enjoyed this video and find value in this video make sure you guys smash the like button and let me know this is the type of content that you enjoy. Now back to regular programming. The fifth way to raise funding for your small business is through incubators. Now what are incubators? Incubators are basically schools for businesses and when you apply to them it is actually quite difficult to get in because with different business schools they only accept on an average one to two percent of the applications because what are they going to provide? They're going to provide very focused mentorship to you if you're accepted. You're also going to get funding from them. You're also going to get to tap into their connections and most likely it's much more easier to get funding if you can get into these well-known incubators. Now the cons of working in an incubator is the fact that you need to give up ownership and on top of that usually it does take a very very difficult process to get into these incubators so it's not something that you can have in a very short period of time. Now who is this for? It is for people that have a longer term vision that wants to get mentorship in how to build their business from scratch and for the people who are willing to give away ownership. Definitely if you're looking in towards getting funding through incubators all you have to do is to type in incubators plus your city to find out a list of incubators that you can apply for. Now to share a little bit of a personal story with you about my experience with incubators is that when I first started my business journey this was 10 years ago. I started a tutoring academy and at that time I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to build my business and I needed the funding which is the reason why I applied to a local Vancouver incubator and tried to get in. I went through three different interviews. I tried to network with them through different social gatherings and I finally got to the final stage but at the end I was declined after six months of this whole interview process. I was declined because I was the only founder of the business and they were looking for people that has multiple different partners because their criteria for accepting businesses was that they found that founders with partners are much more highly likely to succeed. That's the reason why I was declined and for me I didn't give up there. I went out and created my tutoring company despite the fact that I didn't get their mentorship and after three years of running this business I sold that business and we were able to actually expand to Toronto and Vancouver as well. So the moral of the story is to never give up on your dreams. The sixth way to get funding for your small business is through fundings and grants. A lot of times governments have a lot of grants available for you to start your small business because they want to be able to promote you to move and get the economy moving and growing all the time. Now the pros of having these grants is the fact that you oftentimes get free money from the government and on top of that a lot of times they come with mentorship on how you can build your business and how do you use your funding and that really helps you grow your business if you're new. I'll give you an example in BC Canada specifically there is a program called SRNED and what they do is they give you funding up to 60% off your research and development for your projects and what that means is that if you want to start a brewery okay you want to start this brewery local craft beer when you spend $500,000 on equipment and coming up with your beer you actually get 60% of that back that means you get back $300,000 into your bank account and that's the reason why having grants is so powerful and it also helps you out with your cash flow that means you're running your business at a discount while you're able to profit. Now the cons of that is that usually it does take a longer process you do need to do your research properly and you do need to get qualified in order for you to get those grants so make sure that you guys do your proper research to see if your idea that you want to create is eligible in the government grants. The seventh way to get funding for your small business is through bank loans now a lot of you guys think that loans might not be a good thing however loans can actually be a very good thing especially with what's going on in the world today because the rates are very low that means you can actually use other people's money to generate money for yourself and usually that rates ranges from 3% to 5% depending on your credit. Now the pros of that is that once again you don't need to use your own money you get to use other people's money to build your business and on top of that usually this is a pretty substantial amount 30k to 100k to more than 200k depending on your personal credit. Now the cons of this is that of course you need to pay back this amount and on top of that when you're borrowing money from the bank they do have a very strict process you do need to make sure you have a professional done business plan they're gonna vet through how are you gonna be able to make money you have a strategy in place what are some of your risks and what is the time frame you're gonna make that money back and on top of that if you do fail it does hurt your personal ratings and your personal credit as well and that's the reason why you probably should really reconsider before getting a loan from the bank. Now who is this for these are for the people who has a solid plan and solid foundation for building the business they know for a fact that hey you know what we know and we have a solid plan to move forward to build this business something like a restaurant people would oftentimes take out bank loans to build the restaurant because they need that cash flow to begin and running their restaurants with equipment with renovations and with hiring as well and throughout the years they can slowly pay that off to the bank. Now that's exactly what we did when we first started 720 Suites we took out a bank loan because we know for a fact that when we have that cash flow we can invest in the equipment which in turn we can pay off for a few years down the road and for us we're actually able to pay off our loan within the first six months of opening up our ice cream shop. So there you go guys the seven ways to get funding for your small business and I'm not sure if you guys are aware but out of the seven five of them requires you to have a solid business plan to have solid business foundation but when you're just starting out how do you know how to actually approach in building a small business or even a restaurant and that's the reason why you should definitely check out our free master class in the link below it is over an hour long of business fundamentals for you definitely check it out down in the link below it is completely free for you to attend and you know walk away with a plan and much more experience on how to start a small business. I hope you really enjoyed this video and if you guys do make sure you guys smash the like button subscribe along the journey and I will see you in the next video.